Bienvenidos a espaňol!
We are excited to offer a Spanish elective this year because exposure to another language at an early age will greatly improve a student's ability to pick up foreign languages later. Spanish is the second most spoken language in the United States with over 45 million speakers. In addition, there are twenty-two countries in this world where Spanish is the primary language. Learning Spanish will help your student appreciate other cultures and more closely understand a growing U.S. population of Spanish speakers. Plus middle schoolers will receive a jump start on taking a language in high school.
Middle school students will have Spanish three times a week for 35 minutes. They are encouraged to practice at home as much as possible so that they can advance quickly in the language. My expectation is that they will practice repeating vocabulary and phrases for 5 minutes each day. We will have little "accountability assessments" every week. If they are listening and participating in class, they will have no trouble completing these mini quizzes.
This course will not prepare them to be ready to skip Spanish 1 in high school. However, it will give them a very solid foundation making high school Spanish much easier. If your student is highly gifted in languages and wants to do extra work to try and get through an entire Spanish 1 textbook, I will be happy to give extra assignments to facilitate a rapid progression. This will require about 30-90 minutes extra per week.
In full disclosure, while I have many years of teaching experience in other subjects, I am not close to being a fluent Spanish speaker. I studied abroad in Spain many years ago and have kept up with a little bit of reading and practice. Even though my accent is decent, I will be using CDs and videos featuring native speakers as much as possible. The songs and videos we will be singing and viewing each week will help them learn the correct sounds in Spanish.
You do have the opportunity to purchase or download the CDs. This is completely optional but may interest those who have super motivated language learners or those who, like me, spend a ton of time in the car and would love to use 5-10 minutes to practice Spanish. Some middle schoolers may resist listening to/singing the songs but it is a great way to learn words and phrases quickly.
If you have any questions, please contact me at 360-485-6293 or traceys@ecsolympia.com
Gracias!
Tracey Sondgroth
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